An Interview with leafo

Dami: What inspired you to start making music?

Leafo: Music was just a really cool and unique thing for me and I had so much interests about it ever since I was in 5th/6th grade. I love to write on random occasions no matter where I’m at. Music is just basically art for the ears and it feels so refreshing to just work on music.

Dami: What was your first introduction to it?

Leafo: I’ve been chronically online for as long as I can remember hahahah so I’d say the internet pretty much introduced me to music in general.

Dami: How would you describe your debut single?

Leafo: My debut single was very terrible. I was still on my learning phase and rather than waiting to make the song perfect and feel right, I got too impatient and I just released it without hesitation and it turned horrible but that's okay because we all start somewhere pretty much.

Dami: How much would you say you’ve grown creatively since your debut?

Leafo: I’d say I’ve grown hugely creatively since my debut. My style has changed so much compared to years ago, and I’ve been really confident in experimenting with other sounds trying to find my own rather than staying in one dead genre.

Dami: How would you describe these various sounds you experiment with?

Leafo: The sounds that I recently experimented with have been really emotional since it tells a story of what has happened in my life for the past year, and what makes it also emotional is that I find solace in making music and venting my emotional problems within music itself because it helps me improve my mental health and also helps as an artist.

Dami: Care to share these stories you talk about?

Leafo: I mostly talk about relationships in most of my songs. When I make somewhat pop, I sing about being in love and how it feels but when I do my emotional sound, I don’t wanna get too in-depth but it just revolves around my break-up with my ex last May and how it has affected me heavily.

Dami: What’s your creative process like?

Leafo: It usually starts with something I want to express or how I want to be heard and try to sing it in a storytelling way. I explore with different concepts, sounds, etc until it clicks and feels right, then I just let the process guide me and see where I go on from that.

Dami: You just dropped a new EP. Can you tell us more about it. What led to it?

Leafo: I dropped the EP days ago with my great friend gabluhv and it is one of my proudest works in terms of collaborating with him. The EP titled "this too shall pass" reflects on how all good and hard times in life are temporary and short-lived. gabluhv and I agreed that making an EP felt like the right and proper way to bring all these ideas and emotions together in one cohesive story. We wanted to create something more expansive than just a single project where each track contributes to a bigger picture.

Dami: Any visuals for the project?

Leafo: For this project, I don’t really think we got visuals. But for the next one, for sure we're adding visuals.

Dami: What should we expect from the next one?

Leafo: Not an EP anymore, but a full length album! Mostly experimental which is really risky for an LP but 70% of the LP is going to be what my current sound is right now.

Dami: When making music, where do you grab inspiration from?

Leafo: When I make music, my inspiration comes from ericdoa, glaive, jaydes somewhat and valetical as i try to replicate their sound.

Dami: How is it pushing your music to a larger audience while being from the Philippines?

Leafo: It’s a little hard but I’m already used to it since they’re all focused on one genre and one genre only.

Dami: What about the language barrier? Does it affect pushing your music

Leafo: Not really, but at the same time yeah. There is a very small percentage of the entire Philippines that listen to my music in general since everyone is more focused on the OPM (original pinoy music) genre.

Dami: Where do you see yourself in the next 5 years?

Leafo: I don’t wanna get ahead of myself but for sure I could see myself performing and still making music in the next 5 years.

Check out his new EP here